Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)

Ba mhaith liom cúpla focal a rá faoin gcruinniú ar an 8 agus 9 Márta seo caite. Tá áthas orm go raibh stádas na Gaeilge in ord agus in eagar ag an gcruinniú, go raibh fada buan an stádas sin.

Leis an 50ú bliain sroichte againn, mar chomóradh ar an Aontas Eorpach tá sé go maith féachaint ar ár gcomhghleacaithe i dtíortha agus stáit eile an Aontais. I mention our colleagues from other member states because many of them living in this country ask why people from around the EU who live here are not in a position to cast a vote in this country. It is high time we embraced the spirit of solidarity at the heart of the European project and put that right. It is increasingly difficult to accept that people from other EU member states with whom we work closely on a range of issues are essentially alienated from our democracy because they cannot vote in the forthcoming general election.

The European Council meeting stressed energy security and climate change as issues of social justice and human rights. In future the degree to which Ireland can turn its back on fossil fuel dependency will be the ultimate measures of its economic success and development. It will determine its competitiveness and international standing. The countries that seize the business opportunities presented by the new energy reality will prosper. In Germany, 170,000 jobs have been created through Government support for the renewable energy industry. The decisions taken at the EU Council earlier this month, while modest and conservative, are a step in the right direction.

The Government, however, has failed to join the dots on this issue. Judged by its actions, it is in denial about climate change. It has failed to deliver emissions reductions, to set targets at national level or to say how it will reach the targets it has agreed at EU level. Those failures are damaging Ireland's standing on the international stage, increasingly damaging our economy and causing job losses, resulting in Ireland missing out on business opportunities. Irish renewable energy companies, such as Airtricity and OpenHydro, are making huge investments in China, the United States and Scotland rather than in Ireland because the necessary support is not in place here.

The Government's failures mean Ireland is losing credibility in the European Union. When emissions targets were set for 2012, the EU did its best to give Ireland a dig out by allowing us a 13% overrun on 1990 levels. We are now at least 25.4% above 1990 levels. Emissions jumped by 2% in 2005 and that upward trend continues — they jumped 7% in the transport sector alone.

Our EU partners will not give us that dig out again because the Government has shown that it cannot be trusted with this issue. Playing an béal bocht will no longer wash. We are now expected to pull our weight and pay our way. Already the taxpayer is paying hundreds of millions of euro for the Government's failure through the carbon fund, which will inevitably be voted through by the Government tonight. The message to poorer countries is that our business as usual approach is more important than their development as they are expected to allow us to continue on our hapless way.

I am sure the Taoiseach keeps an eye on information from the Environmental Protection Agency and Sustainable Energy Ireland because last week the EPA published a report showing that drought and flooding will become more common in Ireland. The author of the report, Dr. John Sweeney, said the Government is foolishly trying to buy its way out of trouble, and he is right. The Government adviser in Sustainable Energy Ireland, Mr. Martin Howley, has effectively outed the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources's recent commitment to 33% renewable energy generation as an example of fraudulent green-washing. The target translates as 6% energy generation from renewables, which is fundamentally pathetic.

When taken with the Government's heating and transport energy needs, the figure adds up to an overall target of 12% of total renewable energy generation by 2020. With existing policies under this Government it is not possible to even meet the conservative EU targets. Ireland cannot meet the energy and climate change targets agreed at the European Council meeting. That fundamentally points to the need for green government for us to survive and to thrive.

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